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Will transgenic plants adversely affect the environment?

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Abstract

Transgenic insecticidal plants based onBacillus thuringiensis (Bt) endotoxins, on proteinase inhibitors and on lectins, and transgenic herbicide tolerant plants are widely used in modern agriculture. The results of the studies on likelihood and non-likelihood of adverse effects of transgenic plants on the environment including: (i) effects on nontarget species; (ii) invasiveness; (iii) potential for transgenes to ‘escape’ into the environment by horizontal gene transfer; and (iv) adverse effects on soil biota are reviewed. In general, it seems that large-scale implementation of transgenic insecticidal and herbicide tolerant plants do not display considerable negative effects on the environments and, moreover, at least some transgenic plants can improve the corresponding environments and human health because their production considerably reduces the load of chemical insecticides and herbicides.

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Abbreviations

AFLP:

Amplified fragment length polymorphism

AM:

arbuscular mycorrhizal

BBPs:

biotin-binding proteins

Bt:

Bacillus thuringiensis

CEWc:

chicken egg white cystatin

CFU:

colony forming unit

CPB:

Colorado potato beetle

CpTi:

cowpea trypsin inhibitor

ECB:

European corn borer

GFP:

green fluorescent protein

GNA:

Galanthus nivalis agglutinin

GPA:

green peach aphid

HT:

herbicide tolerant

MIT-2:

mustard trypsin inhibitor-2

PCN:

potato cyst hematodes

PCR:

polymerase chain reaction

PIs:

protease inhibitors

PLFA:

phospholipid fatty acid analysis

rNPT-II:

cloned neomycin phosphotransferase-II

SBTI:

soybean trypsin inhibitor

SSCP:

single-strand conformation polymorphism

TPs:

transgenic plants

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  1. Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142290, Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russian Federation

    Vassili V. Velkov

  2. Institute of Theoretical & Experimental Biophysicis, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142290, Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russian Federation

    Alexander B. Medvinsky

  3. Research Center for Toxicology and Hygienic Regulation of Biopreparations, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 142253, Serpukhov, Moscow Region, Russian Federation

    Mikhail S. Sokolov & Anatoly I. Marchenko

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  1. Vassili V. Velkov
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  3. Mikhail S. Sokolov
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Correspondence to Vassili V. Velkov.

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Velkov, V.V., Medvinsky, A.B., Sokolov, M.S. et al. Will transgenic plants adversely affect the environment?. J. Biosci. 30, 515–548 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02703726

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